After having had quite a few plays of 1862 online and in person, I decided to tackle a solo run through. The solo rules as provided by the game are fairly concise and require some clarifications. Thus, after scouring the BGG forums I decided to compile a quick and handy list for my next plays. For a quick introduction to the game itself and some basic strategy tips checkout 1862, an arms race.

These notes assume that one is familiar with the game and know the base + solo rules. The first important point is that you need to have companies to be able to put out of the game in order to perform operations that require putting them out! Another important point regarding setup is that you setup the tableau and then pick companies to remove out of the game. This can sometimes make it easier to collect shares and can sometimes completely ruin your tableau plans.

Stock Rounds

Operating Rounds

The full game will follow one of two patterns resulting in either five or six Stock Rounds and either ten or twelve Operating Rounds:

The first of these (ten OR) will happen if you buy too many trains early on. During the 2nd, 3rd and 4th OR combined the Yorkshiremen will remove at least 6 trains. If you make sure you buy at least one train each OR but no more than 5 total over those three OR, you will be able to delay the purchase of the first D train long enough for the second scenario (twelve OR).

Finally, note that the extra train removal is only stopped when a train is bought from the bank!

Mergers

The reasoning for the above can be explained from this thread: When performing a merger of two chartered companies in the multiplayer game, the first step (after choosing the companies) is to move shares from the IPO to the bank pool. This in effect means that there are no shares in the IPO anymore, so any share purchased would be at market price. In solo play, however, those shares will probably still be stuck in the tableau, since for chartered companies the tableau is equivalent to the IPO (unless they're at the top of the row, in which case they're just moved to the bank pool).

For refinanced companies, shares would normally be relinquished to the bank pool during that process too. So it makes sense that the cost would be current market price for those companies too, since shares stuck in the tableau would normally have gone into the bank pool.

Redeeming stock

Companies may only redeem stock from the bank pool, or those in the tableau which are the top share of the column they occupy. As usual, they may only redeem one share per operating turn. Redeeming a share costs par price for chartered companies which have not been part of a merger, and stock-market price otherwise. Redeeming a share in a non-chartered company costs the company nothing if taken from the tableau, and stock-market price from the bank pool.

Refinancing

Should a non-chartered company need to buy a train and cannot afford one, it may use shares at the top of a column in the tableau as though there were on the company charter. These shares are available to be sold in order to fund the train purchase. If doing this would be insufficient to allow the company to buy a train, then these share certificates may not be used for this purpose.

Dead companies

Shares in companies which are bankrupt, or which are non-surviving parties to a merger, are placed in the bank pool with their original permit, and may not be re-bought directly by you. The corresponding home station marker goes back in the cup, as the company may now be removed from the game. For mergers, the surviving company is given an additional permit card of the same type held by the non-surviving company. It is possible for a company which operates and leaves the game owing to a merger or bankruptcy to be restarted and floated by purchasing a further three shares from the tableau. If this happens then it uses the permit it originally received when first started.

Note that there are only ever 6 permits in the game and when a company bankrupts the permit is still attached to it. If it is subsequently kicked out of the game then that permit is lost forever.

End game

Strategy

All in all, I found the solo play to be a lot more interesting than multiplayer oddly enough and am looking forward to playing more of it :).

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